НАУЧНАЯ БИБЛИОТЕКА - РЕФЕРАТЫ - Double Standards in Modern Politics

Double Standards in Modern Politics

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Double Standards in Modern Politics

Minsk, 2010

Plan:

Introduction

1. Double standards in the European Union:

1.1 Big Sharks bullies Fish

1.2 UN vs Israel

1.3 International law

2. US double standards:

2.1 Double standards at home and abroad

2.2 American exceptionalism and common criticism

Bibliography

Introduction

One of the Noam Chomsky's books is opened with a well-known story told by St. Augustine about a pirate captured by Alexander the Great who asked him: “How dare you molest the sea?” The pirate in return, relied: “How dare y o u molest the whole world? Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you doing the same thing with the great navy are called an Emperor”.

Since the time this story took place a lot of time has passed. Yet the double standards are still applied to the same actions taken by different people. The term double standard, coined in 1912, refers to any set of principles containing different provisions for one group of people than for another, typically without a good reason for having said difference. A double standard may take the form of an instance in which certain applications (often of a word or phrase) are perceived as acceptable to be used by one group of people, but are considered unacceptable--taboo--when used by another group.

A double standard, thus, can be described as a sort of biased, morally unfair suspension (toward a certain group) of the principle that all are equal in their freedoms. Such double standards are seen as unjustified because they violate a basic maxim of modern legal jurisprudence: that all parties should stand equal before the law. Double standards also violate the principle of justice known as impartiality, which is based on the assumption that the same standards should be applied to all people, without regard to subjective bias or favoritism based on social class, rank, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or other distinction. A double standard violates this principle by holding different people accountable according to different standards. The proverb "life is not fair" is often invoked in order to mollify concerns over double standards.

The term can be a